INTRODUCTION
The advent of competence approaches is a fairly late development in the human services professions. Until recent years, these professions have been dominated by defect approaches, the medical and psychoanalytic models their best know examples. Adherents of the defect approaches assume that pathological, socially deviant behavior is the most important feature to observe about human functioning. Deviant behavior is attributed to stable states inside the person, the cause of which occurred at some time removed from the present. In contrast, competence models are concerned with a fuller range of human functioning, stressing positive capacities. The ongoing interaction between individual and environment is emphasized; the two are regarded as mutually influencing, and the relationship between them as fluid and changeable. The person-environment relationship has been described as interdependent or transactional. | Jeri Dawn Wine
As Wine points out, these approaches have in common three defining assumptions: 1) the aspects of human functioning that are most important to observe are those that are deviant and abnormal; 2) these deviant characteristics are assumed to be manifestations of a pathological state located within the individual; 3) the cause of the state, whether supernatural, physical or psychic, occurred at some time in the past. Such notions form the fundamental assumptions of traditional practitioners. Such a fundamental assumption is open to a great deal of discussion as anomalies and failure of practice continue to occur.
The fundamental assumption of Cognitive Behavior Management is of an entirely different order.
Human beings are the sum total of what they think.
A person does not behave contrary to the way they think and cannot even try – for to do so, they would have to think differently. Why people think the way they do has to do with the person-environment transactions that occur. While each individual infant must create his or her own world reality, s/he does so with the help of others who guide, direct, habituate and reinforce thoughts and beliefs. The creation of an individual theory of meaning, built gradually through multiple experiences and the comparisons and judgements about those experiences tend to culminate with two major pillars of mental architecture. These are composed of beliefs about the self and the beliefs about others and it is these thoughts that most influence human relations. These two structures create another mental mechanism of expectations. And what we expect to happen, usually does.
“If you believe you can, or you believe you can’t, you are probably right.”
Henry Ford
Meichenbaum, Butler and Gruson in their model of social competence point out that ‘expectancies’ represent the individual’s personal prediction (whether from previous experience or the emotional meaning that the situation holds) about what will happen in a given social situation. Expectancies may be reflected in elements of the ’self talk’ that individuals use in given situations, as, for example, in the case of the person who pauses when entering a party and says to him/herself: “Here I am, anxious again. I’ll probably freeze up. I hate parties!”. Expectancies may also, in some individuals or in some circumstances, operate without the person’s awareness of specific thought, as in the case of the person whose general sense is that social approaches typically turn out badly.
‘Social outcomes’ represent the wide range of events to which an individual may have some cognitive or behavioral reaction. These may include tangible results (e.g., another person’s verbal or nonverbal response), as well as internal events (such as physiological reactions, mood states, etc.). The authors suggest that it is not the social outcome per se that is important, but the individual’s interpretation or ‘appraisal’ of this outcome. They point out, for example, that physiological arousal may be interpreted by an individual as either debilitating social anxiety, or as nervous excitement in anticipation of positive social experiences. A conversational partner’s momentary lapse of attention may be interpreted as disinterest or boredom with oneself, or as the result of the partner’s fatigue, social unease, his/her recognition of a familiar voice across the room, or a host of other factors.
Expectancies and appraisals of social outcomes interact in complex ways with one another and with social behavior. Expectancies may operate to constrain the social cues that the person processes, as well as the evaluation s/he places on them. This, in turn, has an important impact upon the social behavior emitted in the situation. Appraisals of behavioral outcomes can in turn so constrain attention and behavior as to set up or confirm expectancies in current or future social situations.
An illustration of findings that are supportive of this view of social competence is reported to be found in a study by Fiedler and Beach. Using a decision-expectancy model, the researchers secured ratings from adult women on the likelihood of various behavioral alternatives in specific hypothetical assertive situations. They found that expectancies about consequences following a proposed behavioral act more adequately explained unassertiveness and social incompetence than did the subject’s behavioral repertoire. They concluded that the focus of competence training should be on changing the participant’s expectations about the results of his or her behavior, rather than focusing on either values or on specific behaviors. These results are consistent with the data and arguments put forth by Bandura about the important role of expectancies in influencing interpersonal competence.
An important corollary of this view of social competence is the notion that individuals actively create their own environments by their choice of social situations and partners, by their processing of social information in these situations, and by their interpersonal behavior. This is very much a transactional view of the person-environment exchange. In effect, we are suggesting that any definition of social competence must include not only the individual’s cognitive or behavioral response to a social situation, but his or her active engendering of a changing social environment. Meichenbaum, et al, suggest that one key ingredient of social competence is the individual’s ability to create and maintain positive and supportive social environments. Socially incompetent behavior, on the other hand, may result from distorted or constrained processing of social information, even when the individual has a wide variety of social and behavioral skills in his or her repertoire.
Thus, from a social competence point of view, the three defining assumptions of defect models: 1) the aspects of human functioning that are most important to observe are those that are deviant and abnormal; 2) these deviant characteristics are assumed to be manifestations of a pathological state located within the individual; 3) the cause of the intraindividual state, whether supernatural, physical or psychic, occurred at some time in the past are all open to question. The most important aspects to observe are those competencies that the person already has displayed and to understand why and how they are able to manifest those competencies. The ‘deviant’ characteristics may be partially contained in the distorted thinking that causes the individual to both perform inappropriately and to seek out ‘inappropriate’ peers, but this is an interactive process which the individual can relearn and change. Finally, while the initiation of the ‘bottom up’ data collection occurred at some time in the past, these cognitive structures and processes are utilized every day and can and do change over time. Finally, these changes can be encouraged and enhanced through specific intervention techniques.
In terms of social competence, there are at least twenty one [21] general performance characteristics to consider. Each of these characteristics can be considered an outcome expectation which, if achieved, will increase the child’s mastery of social competence. In this protocol, we will list each of these characteristics and discuss 1) methods for measuring the evidence of the characteristics and 2) methods for increasing the child’s likelihood of manifesting the characteristics. As you read, you may want to make a copy of the list of characteristic by number as included in the Appendix. When we refer back and forth by number, it will make comprehension easier.
SKILL CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL COMPETENCE
In light of our understanding that individuals learn to perform competently – capacity to expectation – and that this learning is a constant cognitive process, cognitive science has identified twenty-two [22] specific cognitive processes related to, what Goleman has called, emotional literacy. The socially competent child should be:
- Able to understand and label emotions
- Able to mediate emotions effectively
- Able to accurately attribute one’s own strengths and weaknesses
- Able to express emotions effectively and appropriately
- Able to understand the emotions and behaviors of others
- Able to accept oneself
- Able to behave appropriately to expectations
- Able to discriminate social cues
- Able to analyze thoughts and beliefs
- Able to logically evaluate the effectiveness of thoughts and behavior
- Able to solve problems
- Able to develop alternative solutions
- Able to weigh consequences
- Able to make decisions under stress
- Able to use failure as a learning experience
- Able to respond effectively to other people’s behavior
- Able to communicate effectively and assertively
- Able to set personal goals and implementation plans
- Able to act altruistically
- Able to take social responsibility
- Able to develop a positive explanatory style
- Able to create and maintain positive and supportive social environments
Since each of these competencies can be learned, a prevention intervention can be constructed to teach these competencies. Based on Gordon’s proposal to replace the terms primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention, we can define three forms of preventive intervention: universal, selective, and indicated.
Universal preventive interventions target the general public or a whole population group that has not been identified on the basis of individual risk. Because such programs are positive, proactive, and provided independent of risk status, their potential for stigmatizing participants is minimized and they may be more readily accepted and adopted. Thus, a school district could choose to make the process of learning these twenty-two competency skills a part of their ongoing curriculum.
On the other hand selective interventions are those that target individuals in a subgroups (based on biological or social risk factors) whose risk of developing psychological disorders is significantly higher than average. The school may then choose to provide a curriculum to specific students in specific classes. In a similar fashion indicated preventive interventions can target individuals who are identified as having signs or symptoms or biological markers related to psychological disorders, but who do not yet meet diagnostic criteria.
However it is provided, the learning of these skill characteristics can contribute substantially to the diminishment or elimination of the emerging adults’ problems in living.
As we take each of these characteristics or skills individually we will occasionally cross reference. The reader may want to make a copy of the individual characteristics to compare these references.
Note that these characteristics are not specifically in an order or priority for sequential learning, although we have tried to arrange them logically. One process for organizing the learning for an individual may be to attempt first to verify the presence or absence of the characteristic and then to order the skill learning of those that are necessary. If the intent is to use the learning as a curriculum based process of universal prevention intervention, the one developed by Kusche and Greenberg, Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies [PAThS] is an excellent starting point and can be enhanced by the suggested techniques in this protocol.
ASSESSMENT
The single best childhood predictor of adult adaptation is not school grades, and not classroom behavior, but rather the adequacy with which the child gets along with other children. Children who are generally disliked, who are aggressive and disruptive, who are unable to sustain close relationships with other children and who cannot establish a place for themselves in the peer culture are seriously at risk. Hartup -1992
Child managers observe and monitor interactions among children. It is important to recognize that informal arrangements of children are the change environment in which the child learns social skills. If a child appears to be doing well on most of the attributes and characteristics of social competence it is reasonable to assume that occasional social difficulties will be remedied without intervention. Child managers should let children who rarely have difficulties attempt to solve conflicts by themselves. Children will strengthen their social skills, confidence and independence by being entrusted to solve their social difficulties without adult assistance.
The child’s long term social emotional development as well as their cognitive and academic development are clearly affected by the child’s social experiences with both peers and adults. Children vary in social behavior for a variety of reasons including temperament and cultural variables. Some may need help bridging their differences and in finding ways to learn from and enjoy the company of others. Child managers have a proactive responsibility for creating a classroom and community that support all children.
This checklist includes attributes of a child’s social behavior that child managers are encouraged to examine every three or four months. In using the checklist, adults are advised to determine whether or not the attributes are typical of the child. The attributes indicate adequate social growth if they characterize the child’s usual behavior. The most important index to note is the quality rather than the quantity of the child’s friendships.
INSTRUCTIONS:
The child manager should look at each variable and provide a personal construct [e.g., a bipolar representation of judgement such as ‘good’ whose opposite or contrast might be ‘bad’] for each variable. Some poles are indicated, but may or may not be appropriate for the individual child. The first variable ‘mood’, for example, might range from sad to bright or from negative to positive. Always place the preferred social context at the five [05] or right hand side. Then rate the individual child between these two poles. One should assume that a total score for all variables averaged to 3.5 or better would be indicative of a reasonably good social competence.
I. INDIVIDUAL ATTRIBUTES 1 2 3 4 5
Variable
1. mood negative positive
2. dependence on adults excessive rare
3. willingness to come to program resists engages
4. copes with rebuffs is embarrassed, frustrated, angry copes adequately
5. shows capacity to empathize no capacity shows capacity
6. has positive associations none has more than one friend
7. displays humor sad, sneers laughs easily
8. does not seem acutely lonely
II. SOCIAL SKILLS ATTRIBUTES
9. approaches others does not approach, threatens approaches positively
10. expresses preferences
11. gives reasons for actions rarely often
12. assertiveness aggressive, passive assertive
13. not easily intimidated tends to fight or withdraw
14. expresses anger/frustration tends to lead to fights or sobbing does not escalate disagreements
15. gains access to groups at play/work tends to break up the action joins in easily
16. enters & contributes to social discussion appropriately makes relevant contributions
17. takes turns with prompting easily
18. shows interest in others ignores
19. exchanges information tight lipped seeks and gives information
20. negotiates and compromises wants own way appropriately compromises
21. seeks inappropriate attention to self often draws such attention no
22. accepts differences in others tends to attack differences enjoys differences
23. interacts nonverbally does not smiles, waves, nods, etc.
III. PEER RELATIONSHIP ATTRIBUTES
24. relations neglected, rejected accepted
25. invited to join others rarely often
26. is named by others as a friend no more than one
TOTALS
TOTAL AVERAGE
THE SKILL CHARACTERISTICS
The most important features of human environments are other people, and among the essential human competencies are those that contribute to mutually satisfying and gratifying interpersonal relationships.
For all human beings the most critical factor to thinking is the emotional spin that is attached. Without such emotional context, few things have meaning. The most basic definition of emotional spin is that which is connected to utility, which can be defined as the pursuit of pleasure or the avoidance of pain. Both pleasure and/or pain provide meaning to thoughts which make them available for appraisal and expectation. Thus, the construct of emotional literacy has salience for social competence.
1. Able to understand and label emotions
It is very clear that children need to learn to identify and label the bodily sensations connected to emotional states. The process of acquisition of such learning is a psychoeducational experience. Through a pedagogical repetition and discussion the child begins to be able to connect certain sensations [hair standing up on the back of the neck] with fear and as preparation for flight &/ or fight.
In order to address this issue correctly, the characteristic must first be defined in a ‘well formed’ way which indicates its measurability. We make no attempt to put this into the language of the child, but as you convey these conceptual notions to the child, such a translation will need to occur.
What is an emotion and how does it occur? An emotion starts with a ‘feeling’ or sensation of the body. This sensation is caused by the perception and interpretation of some object, event or experience. While walking through a jungle, you ‘sense’ movement – this is a ‘right brain’ perception, that can be called a hunch, or an intuition. How do you label this event? Do you decide that it is your friend trying to sneak up on you or is it a lion? If you interpret the ‘sense’ of movement as a lion, your arousal mechanism will upgrade considerably and you will tend to gear up to fight or flee. If you interpret it as your friend, the arousal will not be nearly as dramatic, although you may consciously become watchful. The difference between the two interpretations is fear.
Fear is the language symbol that we have attached to the ‘feeling’ that we get in the body when this type of arousal occurs. However, fear has several different aspects. Psychologically we identify anxiety, phobia and panic as three major problems. We could suggest that you might panic at a phobia toward snakes if you found yourself in a nest of them. Nonetheless, fear can be minor or major with as many levels in between as we can create representations for. Thus, simply by providing the child with words and concepts, we can help the child identify the intensity of the fear in new ways. To say that I am afraid does not necessarily mean that I am panic stricken. I may be dismayed by how anxious I feel visiting my in-laws. I may worry about crossing the highway. But I am not in the same arousal mode as I might be if I was at a zoo and a lion escaped.
Thus, I want the child to be able to ‘tell me’ what his perceptions and sensations are and identify how intense it feels to him/her. I want to make sure that s/he is accurately defining the terms. I want the child to understand the difference between perception and interpretation. Perception [the feeling or sensation] is biological. The interpretation, placing the label ‘fear’, is biographical – it is connected to the specific prior experiences of the individual. Some children are notoriously able to go to a horror movie and be ‘unmoved’ by the monster while others can’t sleep at night. The physical experience is the same, their perceptions are the same, their interpretations are different, and therefore, their subjective experience of the event is different.
So in order to help the child reach this outcome, it will be necessary for the child to:
- be able to identify specifically what s/he perceives
- be able to articulate specifically the somatic sensations ‘feelings’ that s/he has
- be able to identify the thoughts that generate these feelings.
- be able to identify the way s/he is influenced to behave when these ‘feelings’ exist
The first step in addressing these issues is through the development of a psychoeducational curriculum which can help the child learn the language and concepts necessary to manifest these behaviors. The PAThS curriculum has some excellent lesson plans which can be used to address many of these purposes, although the changeworker may still need to use in situ opportunities to help the child ‘work through’ these issues.
The major issue is to make the child mindful of these issues so that they become sufficiently conscious that the child can be aware, attend to, and analyze these experiences. To be mindful, is to become an Impartial Spectator: trying to observe your own thoughts, emotions and behavior as if you were observing the thoughts, emotions and behavior of another.
Keeping the perspective of the impartial spectator under painful circumstances is hard work, requiring energy and exertions. But as the child is able to master this mindfulness skill and can review the content of his/her own perception, thought and emotion, s/he is now in a position of mediating behavior.
Measurement of performance can be done through testing by pictures and/or movies, as well as in situ occurrences. For example, the child can be given pictures of other people whose expressions should identify what emotions they are displaying and the child should be able to identify the emotions, and to some degree the intensity of the emotions. This is a demonstration of the language and concept knowledge as well as the indication that the child can tell you what s/he perceives.
The child should be asked to specifically identify how s/he ‘feels’ [body sensations] in situ when an event occurs. Example: the child is walking through the hall and another person bumps into him/her. What did s/he feel? Did the adrenaline flow? How did s/he know? Help the child concentrate on the body’s reactions, not the mind’s reaction as a first step.
Once the child is able to talk concisely about the somatic reactions, then ask about what s/he thought. Go through the analysis, alternative process of cognitive process correction. Help the child think of as many alternative explanations for the event and the somatic response as possible. This increases resilience and flexibility.
Finally, help the child begin to articulate how the emotions [feelings + interpretation] make him/her want to act. Does s/he want to fight or flee? What does s/he actually do?
When the child is able to articulate all of this, you are ready to help him/her choose alternatives that might be more utile.
The measures of the outcome for the language and concepts are relatively easy, but the outcomes for the rest of the behaviors is a question of the relative ability to define some things in their most positive form.
The final measurement of this skill is the presence of characteristic #7 – able to behave appropriately to expectations and # 17 – able to respond effectively to other people’s behavior.
2. Able to mediate emotions effectively
Mediation of emotions is a cognitive process which includes the steps of awareness of the emotion [properly labeled], attendance, analysis for utility – does it bring more pleasure or pain [this aspect is connected to the behavior that the emotion generates and the consequences such behavior engenders], development of alternatives [this is connected to new thoughts about the experience that has engendered the emotions], and adaptation to the new thoughts and behaviors.
In order to mediate the emotions, the child will need flexibility of interpretation [thoughts] and this will require a process of cognitive process correction. The Cognitive Process Correction Protocol #10 gives a very specific outline of the process. The Techniques #01 Perceiving Reflex Thoughts, #02 Altering Limited Thinking Patterns And #03 Changing Distressing Thoughts provide specific techniques and procedures for carrying out this process.
Measurement of this skill will be primarily through the outcomes of #7.
3. Able to accurately attribute one’s own strengths and weaknesses
This requires that the child understand his/her own attribution process [external/internal] and envisions some flexibility in terms of internal attributions which are changeable, usually based upon effort. While there is no formal technique per se which addresses this issue, it clearly has a psychoeducational aspect as well as a cognitive process correction aspect.
This skill can also be supported through the Self Affirmation Protocol #08 and particularly the use of the Self Concept Inventory can be helpful in establishing a balanced and rational starting place.
This can be reasonably measured by testing in situ occurrences.
4. Able to express emotions effectively and appropriately:
This issue is connected to #2, in that impulsive expression of strong emotions without mediation often leads to problems in living. Expression of such emotions effectively and appropriately is generally a psychoeducational process which may be advanced by the use of CBT#23 Assertiveness Training.
Measurement of this outcome is likely to be reflected in improvement in area #7 and the child’s own self reports.
5. Able to understand the emotions and behaviors of others:
This issue is connected to both empathy and perception taking, the ability to sense social situations. Both of these can be thought of as social skill training – See A. P. Goldstein – the Prepare Curriculum for intervention methodology. It should be noted, that this skill is dependent upon characteristics numbers #1, #2 and #4.
Measurement is connected to #7. However, certain correlations can be noted between the perceptions of the Mentor and the child.
6. Able to accept oneself:
This issue is related to #03. There are, thus, two kinds of self affirmation problems: situational and characterological. Negative self appraisal that is situational tends to show up only in specific areas. For example, a person might have confidence in him/herself in some areas of life, but not in others. “I read well, but cannot do math.” Characterological self rejection, often having roots in early experiences of abuse or abandonment, derives from a basic identity statement: an viseral belief of being bad. While both can be addressed through cognitive behavior management, the first is usually addressed predominantly through Cognitive Process Correction Protocol #10, while the second may require a deeper Cognitive Restructuring Protocol #09. Both, however, are enhanced by a process of doing. Therefore, the CBT#12 Getting Mobilized has some merit for implementation.
There are probably few methods of measurement other than self report.
7. Able to behave appropriately to expectations:
This is not a measurable outcome, since the expectations of others are not specified. However, such expectations can be specified for the individual child. The issue is connected to all of the above criteria, but especially to #2. There is no technique per se, but the accumulation of interventions should ultimately improve the child’s social performance in this manner.
This is the primary outcome measurement of social competence and should be measured by the reports of others, specifically those child managers who are asking for specific performance [e.g., teachers] and through sociometric measurements with peers.
8. Able to discriminate social cues:
This issue is related to #5 and the Prepare Curriculum will define specific skill teaching methodology.
Measurement is connected to #7. However, certain correlations can be noted between the perceptions of the Mentor and the child.
9. Able to analyze thoughts and beliefs:
This process has already been covered with CBP #10 Cognitive Process Correction and CBT##01 Perceiving Reflex Thoughts, #02 Altering Limited Thinking Patterns & #03 Changing Distressing Thoughts. The child should be able to demonstrate that s/he has mastered this skill through an articulation of the process.
10. Able to logically evaluate the effectiveness of thoughts and behavior:
See #9. Some testing can be done between the client and the Mentor for purposes of measurement.
11. Able to solve problems:
Two different types of problems occur – pragmatic and social. Both can cause problems in living, but the social interaction problems seem to be most powerful in this context. CBT#20 Interpersonal Cognitive Problem Solving can be used to address social concerns. This may need to be upgraded for older children, but the principles remain the same. Also, see CBT#13 Problem Management & Decision Analysis for pragmatic problem solving and separation of WANTs and NEEDs.
Measurement is connected to #7. However, the child’s own self report about increased satisfaction/gratification should also be considered.
12. Able to develop alternative solutions:
Alternative thinking is an important component of problem solving. See #9. Some testing can be done between the client and the Mentor for purposes of measurement. This is a creative thinking process and Edward de Bono [of Lateral Thinking and Six Thinking Hats fame] is the master of creative thinking. Some of his techniques can be used to help the child learn to expand his/her idea hierarchy.
Measurement can be obtained by giving the child a social story and asking him/her to offer as many alternative meanings as possible. Children with severe and persistent problems in living often find it difficult to give more than one or two meanings. As these numbers expand, the flexibility in thinking is also expanding.
13. Able to weigh consequences:
Next to the ability to develop alternative solutions, consequential thinking is an important component of problem solving. See #9. Some testing for measurement can be done in an exchange between the client and the Mentor for purposes of determining the child’s understanding of what might happen with a behavioral choice. Again, social stories can be designed to test this ability.
14. Able to make decisions under stress:
The first aspect of decision making is to be able to weigh and solve problems, particularly pragmatic problems where the WANTs and NEEDs, must be separated. The next aspect of making decision under stress would seem to be connected to creative thinking, the ability to look at the problem from several perspectives in order to ‘think out of the box’, not follow rotely the hierarchy of ideas. Thus, Problem Management and the de Bono creative thinking techniques should be considered.
The measurement of this can only occur in situ. Test taking is a probable way to first get a baseline and then see improvements.
15. Able to use failure as a learning experience:
This is primarily a psychoeducational process of learning language and concepts that can help to shift the perspective of failure from a disastrous experience to a learning experience. Practice in identifying the learning components of each experience should be considered an automatic process in counseling and in the life of the child. This is also concerned with Reframing and CBT#34 should be reviewed for possible support.
Measurement of improvement will probably be shown in the content of ‘self talk’. If the child has serious difficulties with expectation of failure and failure as catastrophic, CBP#10 Cognitive Process Correction and CBT##01 Perceiving Reflex Thoughts, #02 Altering Limited Thinking Patterns & #03 Changing Distressing Thoughts should be used to reach more balanced and rational thinking. The Thought Journals can be a source of documenting change.
16. Able to respond effectively to other people’s behavior:
This aspect is connected to #2 mediating emotions effectively and #5 ability to understand the emotions and behavior of other people. This is the critical test to those skills. If the child is able to mediate his/her emotions and understand the emotions and behaviors of others, s/he should be able to find effective responses.
There is one potential conundrum in that a child may respond appropriately, but not effectively. The Mentor should seek to make this a learning experience. The child cannot control other people, but can learn increased skills in handling difficult people.
17. Able to communicate effectively and assertively:
Effective communication is both transactional [adult schema to adult schema] and, where necessary, directive. The concepts of both of these can be taught psychoeducationaly. Use CBT#23 Assertiveness Training for the skill learning aspects.
18. Able to set personal goals and implementation plans:
The development of effective goals and implementation plans is a process of creating a future. Children with severe and persistent problems in living often have only avoidance goals. Mentors should have the child develop a Vision Statement and use CBT#27 Motivation and Goal Setting.
Implementation of the vision statement becomes the measure of outcome.
19. Able to act altruistically:
All children with problems in living should be given an altruistic role. First, it sends a message to the child that s/he is competent to help someone else. Second, it can provide immense satisfaction. Helping a child achieve such a role is a process of balanced and rational belief that the child can help others and finding an appropriate opportunity for this to happen.
Measurement is in effectively acting out the role.
20. Able to take social responsibility:
This is connected to the child’s internal/external attribution process. Children who see themselves as ‘victims’ of the world, cannot take responsibility. ‘Seeding’ the environment with antecedent internal attributions [See CBT#24 Attribution Training] can be an effective intervention along with reinforcement of occurrence.
Again, if the child’s ‘inner logic’ is so ‘victimized’ that s/he is immobilized, CBP #10 Cognitive Process Correction and CBT##01 Perceiving Reflex Thoughts, #02 Altering Limited Thinking Patterns & #03 Changing Distressing Thoughts should be implemented.
The critical sign of growth is when the child owns up to something that is not seen as positive. However, self responsibility even for ‘doing good’ is a step in the right direction, since many children are unable to take compliments for right deeds, either because of the potential for increased expectation or because they do not believe they deserve it because of how they feel about themselves. Additionally, some children may fail to accept or acknowledge the goodness of a deed because they believe the action ‘should’ have been done and, as such, is unworthy of recognition. Such thinking can be addressed by the Protocol and Techniques mentioned above.
21. Able to develop a positive explanatory style:
This is a second major outcome of social competence and like number #7 is a broad measure of the success of the other factors. Again, there is no technique per se which can cause a positive explanatory style, although the outcome of Techniques #01, #02 and #30 will certainly lay the ground work. The explanatory style must be optimistic and resilient and should be pervasive, persistent and personal throughout.
22. Able to create and maintain positive and supportive social environments:
Michenbaum, et al, suggested that any definition of social competence must include not only the individual’s cognitive or behavioral response to a social situation, but must include their ability to seek out and recruit supportive models to populate their ecosystem. The behavior of the child who is rejected by his/her peers and then succeeds in recruiting deviant peers is a well know occurrence. This process, of course, reinforces the very behaviors for which the child was rejected in the first place.
Teaching a child how to recruit supportive models can be found in the Prepare Curriculum [page 449] and provides specific techniques for such an approach.
Measurement of the outcome of this intervention is indicated in the types and numbers of people in the child’s personal network or Community of Interest, which would include adults as well as peers.
TWENTY-TWO CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL COMPETENCE
- Able to understand and label emotions
- Able to mediate emotions effectively
- Able to accurately attribute one’s own strengths and weaknesses
- Able to express emotions effectively and appropriately
- Able to understand the emotions and behaviors of others
- Able to accept oneself
- Able to behave appropriately to expectations
- Able to discriminate social cues
- Able to analyze thoughts and beliefs
- Able to logically evaluate the effectiveness of thoughts and behavior
- Able to solve problems
- Able to develop alternative solutions
- Able to weigh consequences
- Able to make decisions under stress
- Able to use failure as a learning experience
- Able to respond effectively to other people’s behavior
- Able to communicate effectively and assertively
- Able to set personal goals and implementation plans
- Able to act altruistically
- Able to take social responsibility
- Able to develop a positive explanatory style
- Able to create and maintain positive and supportive social environments